More than 1,200 young and talented singers from 60 nations have sent off their applications for the 11th Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition organized by the Bertelsmann Stiftung. Above all, there has been an increase in the number of applicants from across the Atlantic; with almost 100 applications from the United States, the tally has more than doubled since 2003. The number of applications rose to 65 in Argentina, home of Franco Fagioli, who took first prize in the 10th Neue Stimmen competition. "Fagioli, a countertenor, is currently winning applause at the Zurich Opera House in Handel’s Giulio Cesare together with Cecilia Bartoli. This is proof that our competition has become a recognized springboard for the careers of young, talented opera singers," said Liz Mohn, vice-chair of the Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board and the competition’s president. This year, two-thirds of the singers registered via the competition website at www.neue-stimmen.de.
The final round of the Neue Stimmen Competition will be taking place in Gütersloh from October 17–22, 2005, with Gérard Mortier, director of the Opéra National de Paris, as chairman of the jury. Co-organizer of the competition is the German broadcasting company Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). First prize carries a cash award of €10,000. Preliminary rounds will begin in Yokosuka, Japan in mid-May, and will continue through September in a total of 21 locations: Berlin, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Cape Town, London, Milan, Moscow, Munich, New York, Paris, Peking, Porto, Riga, Santiago de Chile, Sofia, Stockholm, Sydney, Toronto, Vilnius and Warsaw. Brian Dickie, General Director of the Chicago Opera Theater, and conductor Gustav Kuhn, President of the Tirolean Festival Erl, will be selecting up to 50 contestants who will proceed to the final round in Gütersloh. Besides Gérard Mortier, Gustav Kuhn and Brian Dickie, members of the jury include: Kammersänger Francisco Araiza, professor at the Stuttgart College of Music and Performing Arts; Anthony Freud, general director of the Welsh National Opera and chair of the jury for the "Cardiff Singer of the World" competition; Kammersänger Siegfried Jerusalem, director of the Nuremberg-Augsburg College of Music; Jürgen Kesting, music critic and author; Bernd Loebe, general director of the Frankfurt Opera; Kammersängerin Edith Mathis, professor at the Vienna College of Music and Performing Arts as well as concert singer Edith Wiens, professor at the Nuremberg-Augsburg College of Music and at the Munich College of Music and Theatre. The Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Neue Stimmen competition has earned international recognition as one of the most important events for talented young opera singers and has paved the way to international renown for numerous young artists, including Vesselina Kasarova, René Pape, Nathalie Stutzmann, Noemi Nadelmann, Roman Trekel, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, Melanie Diener, Dietrich Henschel and Angelika Kirchschlager.